Volume 48, Number 1 · January 11, 2001
Tragedy in Denver
By Daniel Mendelsohn
Tantalus
an adaptation from the original ten-play cycle by John Barton,directed by Sir Peter Hall and Edward Hall at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts,October 21–December 2, 2000
Tantalus: Ten New Plays on Greek Myths
by John Barton
Oberon Books, 511 pp., $19.99 (paper)
We know remarkably little about who actually went to the theater in ancient Athens—scholars continue to debate whether women were permitted to attend, for instance—but it's a fair bet that whoever did go had a pretty grueling time of it. All tragedies were originally performed during a six-day-long citywide springtime festival in honor of Dionysos, god of what you could call altered states (drunkenness, theater). On each of the three successive festival days devoted to tragic performances, a different playwright presented a full tetralogy—three complete tragedies followed by a brief, ribald romp called a satyr play, which probably parodied the themes of the dramas immediately preceding it. The day before the performances was reserved for civic and religious ceremonials performed, like the plays themselves, inside the theater: there were parades of war orphans and of the annual 'contributions' from Athens's subject-allies; announcements of the names of citizens who had benefited the state; libations to democracy, peace, and good fortune.
Review, 4496 words
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